U.P. KIDS offers training and support to adoptive, foster, and kinship families

Comment

Sault Ste. Marie Evening News - Sault Ste. Marie, MI

Writer

Posted Jan. 13, 2013 at 2:30 PM

Posted Jan. 13, 2013 at 2:30 PM

Eastern Upper Peninsula

U.P. KIDS announces that the Parenting/Kinship/Diversity Group meets the first Thursday of every month from 6 to 8 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church in Sault Ste. Marie for a potluck dinner followed by simultaneous adult support group and supervised youth activities. This is a support group for adoptive, foster, kinship, and any family with children with special needs. New attendees are most welcome; please call or email if you are planning on attending for the first time.

The first ongoing support group meeting for adoptive, foster, and kinship parents in Newberry will be Thursday, January 17, from 6-8 p.m. at the Luce County Resource & Recreation Center, 111 W. Helen, Newberry. There will be refreshments available, and child care on site, if requested beforehand. Current participants are planning on these meetings occurring bimonthly.

Eastern UP training sites rotate among Chippewa, Luce, and Mackinac counties. Adoptive, foster, and kinship parents as well as anyone working with these families are welcome to these free trainings simply by registering.

The next training for adoptive, foster and kinship parents will be held Thursday, January 24 from 6-8 p.m. at the St. Ignace Public Library. “Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma, Module 4: Building a Safe Place” is the third in monthly training provided in the EUP by U.P. KIDS (formerly Good Will Farm).

This trauma training is one of many in a workshop series for resource parents. With a combination of information and exercises, the training can help resource parents understand the link between trauma and their children’s often baffling behavior, feelings, and attitudes. It gives resource parents practical tools to help their children move forward from their traumatic pasts, to recognize and reduce the impact of their children’s traumas on themselves, and to seek useful support from others. Past attendees in the EUP have expressed the benefits of simply being with and sharing information, ideas, and stories among other resource parents.

Trainer is once again Linda Sanchez, U.P. KIDS Program Director for the Post Adoption Resource Center that services Region 1 (the U.P.). Sanchez has over 10 years of experience in Foster Care, Foster Home Licensing, Family Support Services, and Post Adoption programs. She had been director of a licensed preschool and childcare center in Texas for over 20 years. She has also taught Early Childhood Education as an adjunct professor for Gogebic Community College. She is a licensed foster parent for the Department of Human Services in Houghton County, a mother, and a grandmother. Sanchez was trained as a facilitator for resource parents by Dr. Jim Henry, the co-founder and project director of the Children’s Trauma Assessment Center at Western Michigan University.

Certificates of hours will be provided to those who register and attend. On-site childcare will be provided if requested when registering prior to January 21. For more info on any of the above, call Geraldine Stelmaszek at (906) 281-3276 or e-mail gerry@upkids.com